Representatives of the six major European rugby unions and the IRB today (Thursday) resolved to strengthen the governance of the game to ensure the future of the Heineken Cup.

At a meeting in London attended by representatives of the Welsh Rugby Union, the Unions supported the agreement by the shareholders of the European Rugby Cup that there will be a European club rugby tournament next season.

Today's meeting confirmed:

- the establishment of a new five year ERC participation agreement

- the primacy of the game's governance resting with the national Unions

- that no other tournaments will be sanctioned

and

- that the RFU and the FFR will invite the Chairman of the IRB to meet with Premier Rugby Ltd and the LNR

Roger Lewis, WRU Group Chief Executive said: "The mandate for a European cup competition to take place next season is now firmly established. Fans, players, sponsors and the media can now be confident and in no doubt that a competition will take place.

"It is also clear that the door is still wide open for discussions with the Guinness Premiership and French Championship clubs. We will continue to work flat out to ensure the best European cup competition possible will be staged next season."

The establishment of a new five year ERC participation agreement will see the six Unions as shareholders and will be based on club participation in France, England and Italy and provincial and regional participation in Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

Each national Union will have the right to invite teams from within its territory to participate in the ERC according to its own participation criteria. It will be up to each Union to decide how it wishes to structure its shareholding and financial arrangements with its participating teams.

The Unions will work with the clubs, provinces and regions in promoting, marketing and developing the ERC competition. The Unions believe the English Guinness Premiership and French Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) clubs should participate in the tournament next season.

The RFU and FFR will invite the Chairman of the IRB to meet with Premier Rugby Limited (PRL) and LNR in the coming days. This will take the form of two separate meetings.

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